GPSSC Speed Camera program for MS Windows.

Track Editor View - This allows sections of an NMEA log to be selected and saved in a new log file. This is intended to be used to extract portions of a large NMEA track. The NMEA track can be split or trimmed into smaller sections. This allows you to select parts of NMEA tracks for upload to web sites such as Wiki Openstreetmap. You can also display Wiki OSM and GPX files as background maps in this view and use them as moving maps while tracking your current GPS position.  There is also the option to display a SRTM 3 arc-second height file.

Screenshot.

Screenshot

The process to edit an NMEA log file is:

  1. Select Track Editor view from the View menu.
  2. Using the Tracks menu. Click on New to create a new tracks map file.
  3. Enter a description for the new tracks map file.
  4. Click on the Tracks menu and then Add/Remove Track.  Choose a NMEA log file that you want to edit, give it a description and then click the Add button.  Add more log files if you want, when finished click OK.  Save the tracks map file if you want.
  5. If you added several NMEA log files and want to display them then click on the Tracks menu and then Visible Tracks. Change the Visible option to Yes for any track you want to display.
  6. Click on the Tracks menu and then Edit track.  Choose the file to edit by clicking it in the left column.  Then click the Select Track button and then OK.
  7. The red and blue crosses mark the section of the track that will be saved to a new file.  Move the crosses to the start and end of the track that you want to select.  Double left clicking near the track sets the start position.  Double right clicking near the track sets the end position.  You can also double left or right click  the slider bar or use the buttons below the slider bar.  The buttons in the bottom left corner let you scroll the screen or zoom in or out.  The green section of the bar indicates the size of the track that is selected.  If there is no green section you probably have your crosses swapped over.  The number on the left of the bar should be lower than the number on the right of the bar. 
  8. Click on the Tracks menu and then Save edited track and save the track in a new file.  Do not try and overwrite the source file, you will probably end up with an empty source file.
  9. Click on the Tracks menu and then Close.
  10. If you want to check what the new track looks like you can repeat the process above and add it to the track map file.
  11. Click on the Convert menu and then NMEA log to GPX track or route and create a GPX track file which you can then upload to Wiki OpenStreetMap.


You can add multiple NMEA log files to your map file and display them as well as the track that you are editing.  This allows you to see the position and intersections of the edited track against other tracks. It is also possible to download other peoples Wiki traces and use them.  To do this download a trace from the Wiki website and convert it to NMEA by using GPSBabel.  Convert from GPX XML to NMEA and then add it to the map file.  You can also convert traces in a two step process by converting first to CVS using the GPSSC Convert GPS Track to Route CSV option and then using my GPS NMEA Builder utility to convert that to NMEA (see link below).

 When using the Track Editor view if you have a GPS attached and your comms active this will cause additional screen refreshes to take place.  This may cause unwanted flashing of the screen.  To prevent this click the Stop button to stop your comms.   Only audible speed camera warnings are enabled in Track Editor view when your comms are started.

JOSM track example.

oxford.gif

The Wiki OpenStreetMap JOSM map editor can export all the tracks it has downloaded as a gpx track file. This can be converted to a GPSSC track editor project using the GPSSC Convert - JOSM GPX to map project menu. This may create thousands of NMEA files if you have a large area downloaded in JOSM so consider creating it in it's own folder. Once loaded in GPSSC it zooms and draws at a decent rate. This was intended for importing smaller areas but the big maps do look nice.

There is also the option to load a gpx track file directly in to memory for viewing in the track editor view.  To do this create a new map file or open an existing one using the Track Menu > New or Open.  Then from the Track menu choose Load JOSM gpx file.  The loaded tracks will display as normal but are not editable.  If you change the display option to No for any of these tracks you will be unable to subsequently change it back to Yes.  You may load multiple gpx tracks, you are only limited by the amount of memory on your computer and the speed at which it can redraw the display.  In practice on a decent PC this means you can load several counties worth of Josm tracks.  You can also load gpx tracks from other sources,  any standard gpx track file can be loaded it does not have to be a JOSM created gpx file.

There is also the option to load an osm file directly in to memory for viewing in the track editor view.  To do this create a new map file or open an existing one using the Track Menu > New or Open.  Then from the Track menu choose Load OSM file.  The loaded tracks will display as normal but are not editable.  In the track lists they will not have a filename, the description will be created from the tags in the osm file.  If you change the display option to No for any of these tracks you will be unable to subsequently change it back to Yes.  You may load multiple osm files, you are only limited by the amount of memory on your computer and the speed at which it can redraw the display.  In practice on a decent PC this means you can load several counties worth of osm files.

Tracks loaded from an osm file or a gpx created from an osm using the GPSSC convert menu will be displayed colour coded.  This is controlled by using the tag text that was copied in to the descriptions.  The tags that have a special effect are:

  1. "highway-motorway" Blue 3 pixel width.
  2.  "highway-trunk" Green 2 pixel width.
  3.  "highway-primary" Green 3 pixel width.
  4. "highway-footway" Red 1 pixel width.
  5. "highway-cycleway" Yellow 1 pixel width.
  6. "railway-rail" Maroon 1 pixel width.
  7. "waterway" Dark blue 1 pixel width

You can add these text strings to your own track descriptions so that they are also colour coded.

OSM loaded file screenshot.

maidenhead.gif

Show location screen shot.

location.gif

Tracks - Show Location.  Displays a circle and cross at your current GPS position.  The sample screen shot shows this with a JOSM saved gpx loaded as a background map.  You must have your comms started to use show location.  You can demo this mode by replaying  an NMEA log file using the Test - Replay a log file menu.  On a slow PC when using large maps you might want to stop your comms before loading the map, load the map and zoom in and then restart your comms.   If your slow PC gets stuck loading large maps try unplugging your GPS and then zoom in the map before plugging your GPS in again and restarting your comms.

Tracks - Refresh rate.  Allows you to tweak the screen refresh rate while using Show Location.  If the refresh rate is too high then the PC processor may become over loaded and not be able to read your GPS NMEA strings.  The refresh rate is automatically set and is dependent on the baud rate you are using for your comm port.  If you have a very slow PC you may need to tweak this value.

Nodes icons and text screen shot.

nodes.gif

Tracks - Show icons, Show node names.  GPSSC will normally only load and display ways, with these you will mostly only get parking icons.  However when you convert an OSM (XML) file to a GPX you can now choose to include nodes that have additional tags. When you do this then GPSSC will display icons for the node tags.   To get the additional icons and nodes you need to use Convert Big OSM to GPX with the Include POI option ticked and create a GPX file. The GPX file will then include nodes as well as ways. If you are converting large OSM files including POI can significantly increase the time it takes to do the conversion. In the track editor view load the GPX using Load JOSM gpx file.  Where there is an appropriate icon for a node it is displayed, in other cases only the node text can be displayed as in the screen shot above.

 Tignes GPX loaded file screenshot showing ski pistes.

tignes.gif

When you look at the map in your browser on http://www.openstreetmap.org you will not normally see ski pistes.  They are uploaded by people but are not displayed. GPSSC will display both ski lifts and ski pistes in red dashed and dotted lines.



 SRTM 3 arc-second height file screen

srtm.gif

Tracks - Load SRTM 3 arc-seconds height file.  Loads an SRTM 3 arc-second height file as a backgound image in track view.  SRTM files can be viewed as in the above screenshot.  This is a simple SRTM viewer, the height and width is not proportional and the size and position is not linked to any tracks or maps that may you also have open.  You can however adjust the size and position crudely using the mouse or the four buttons in the lower left of the screen. To avoid a speckled green sea use the version 2 SRTM files e.g. http://dds.cr.usgs.gov/srtm/version2_1/SRTM3/Eurasia/ .  The screen shot above is of the Thames estuary.

GPSSC version 11.0.0.0 12 July 2015

GPSSC will run in Microsoft Windows all versions from XP to Windows 10, 32bit or 64bit.

gpssc.zip 3.5 Mbyte - see requirements

New in the latest version of the program is a Trekbuddy map viewer. For information on this new feature follow this link ...Trekbuddy view...

Back to the main GPSSC web page

Other things

My Googlemap .gpx route or track uploader and creator web page.

http://www.stevematt.f9.co.uk/googlemap/iegmap.html

Fix for Windows jumping mouse problem.   This is handy if you are using a USB GPS.  Especially if you plug your GPS in to several ports.

http://www.stevematt.f9.co.uk/FixSerial/fixserial.htm

GPS NMEA Builder utility for MS Windows - Creates a set of GPS NMEA $GPGGA strings from a set of POI (point of interest) co-ordinates. Useful for simulating the $GPGGA strings a GPS would create for a route. 

http://www.stevematt.f9.co.uk/ukspeedcamera/GPSNMEABuilder.html

Last updated 05 December 2014.